In the same year:
The Dijla—the Tigris—at Baghdad (1) rose to an extraordinary height: the water reached the top of the city wall (2), lacking only the breadth of two fingers, and then poured over it so that the people were sure they were doomed. This continued, without let-up, for seven nights and eight days, until Allah bestowed His mercy, the level fell, and the flood subsided. Baghdad was left a landscape of mounds, most of its buildings in ruins. Surely, we belong to Allah and to Him we return.
In the same year:
Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Faḍlān began teaching at the Niẓāmiyya, with judges and other notables in attendance.
In the same year:
Ṣadr (4) ibn Ḥamūyah set out (3) as an envoy from al-ʿĀdil to the caliph (5).
In the same year:
His son al-Fakhr—acting as envoy on behalf of al-Kāmil (6)—arrived to [his brother] al-Muʿaẓẓam, asking for his daughter’s hand for his own son Aqsīs (7), ruler of Yemen; the marriage contract was concluded in Damascus with an immense dowry.
In the same year:
Sultan ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Khwārazm-Shāh Muḥammad ibn Tākash (8) came from Hamadan on his way to Baghdad with four hundred thousand soldiers—some said six hundred thousand. The caliph prepared (9) for his arrival, mustered great [numbers of] troops, and the sultan sent to the caliph requesting that he present himself before him as former Seljuk monarchs had done, and that the Friday sermon in Baghdad [from its pulpits] be delivered in his name. The caliph refused, and instead dispatched Shaykh Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī (10) to him. When the shaykh reached [him], he beheld the sultan’s grandeur and the multitude of kings in attendance, while the sultan sat in a gold-worked kharqāh (11) upon a teak-wood throne. He wore a Bukhārī cloak worth five dirhams and on his head a skin cap worth a single dirham; the shaykh offered him the greeting of peace.
(1) In the printed edition: “Dajla Baghdad” is added.
(2) In the printed edition: “al-qubur” (the graves), which is a corruption. The compiler quotes it from the appendix to al-Rawdatan (p. 100), itself quoting from Mir’at al-Zaman by Sibt ibn al-Jawzi (vol. 8, p. 582). The correct reading is that established above. This is confirmed by the subsequent phrase “thumma tafaha al-ma’ min fawqihi” in the masculine singular, by al-Dhahabi’s autograph transmission, and by his later remark on this report: “This is from the fissure by Abu al-Muzaffar and is therefore rash” (Tarikh al-Islam, vol. 13, p. 272). (Bishr)
(3) In the printed edition: “Sadr al-Sadr.”
(4) The biography of Sadr al-Din ibn Humuwayh al-Juwayni will appear in Wafayat al-Ayan under the year 617.
(5) In the B manuscript: al-Sadr ibn Humuwayh in the Risaliyya “Min al-‘Adil wa al-Khalifah.”
(6) In the printed edition: “qaddama waladahu al-fakhr ibn al-kamil” (“he presented his son al-Fakhr ibn al-Kamil”), a gross corruption. In fact, Fakhr al-Din is the son of Sadr al-Din ibn Humuwayh. The report appears in the appendix to al-Rawdatan (p. 100), from which we have extracted the bracketed text to maintain the continuity of the passage. (Bishr)
(7) His hadith was cited above.
(8) Khwarazm Shah died in 617 AH (appendix to al-Rawdatan, p. 122).
(9) In the B manuscript: “wasta’id.”
(10) In the B manuscript: Shihab al-Din al-Shahrzuri (appendix to al-Rawdatan, p. 100). The biography of al-Suhrawardi will be given in Wafayat al-Ayan under the year 630, and his journey to Khwarazm Shah is described in the appendix to al-Rawdatan (p. 101) and in al-‘Ubur (vol. 5, p. 48).
(11) In the printed edition: “Khirkah”—the reading in manuscripts A and B is closer to “Kharkah.” I have preferred the above form because the author (may God have mercy on him) later pluralizes the term as al-kharaki. Its original meaning is “the large tent,” later extended to the marquees of kings and ministers. (Mu‘jam al-Alfaz al-Farishah, p. 53).